Putin will hold a pre-New Year meeting with the leaders of the CIS countries in St. Petersburg

According to Interfax , the visits of foreign heads of state to St. Petersburg will last two days. The main meetings will be held on Monday 26 December. And on Tuesday, December 27, a working breakfast is planned for the leaders of the CIS countries. The heads of state received an invitation to this meeting during a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, held on December 9 in Bishkek.

It is noted that the subject of discussion of the participants of the meeting will be issues of both multilateral and bilateral nature.

The meeting will be attended by the head of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, as well as the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan.

Earlier, the Armenian side accused the Russian peacekeepers of inaction in connection with the blocking of the Lachin corridor to Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR) by Azerbaijani " eco-activists ", which caused serious political and humanitarian problems for the unrecognized republic.

Due to the invasion of hundreds of demonstrators, the transport artery to Karabakh was blocked, the supply of vital goods, including medicines, was disrupted from Yerevan to Karabakh, and their shortage began.

Russia preferred to resolve the issue of control of the Lachin corridor with Azerbaijan through diplomacy. At the same time, Yerevan accused Moscow of the inaction of the Russian peacekeepers, who were called upon to guard the corridor. The Russian Federation assumed this responsibility under the agreement between Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on a ceasefire dated November 10, 2020, signed by the presidents of these countries.

Both Azerbaijan and Armenia are fighting for control over the NKR, while the population of Karabakh is striving for independence.

The publication, citing a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, notes that during the visit to St. Petersburg there are no plans for a trilateral meeting with the participation of Putin, Aliyev and Pashinyan, who last held negotiations in this format at the end of October this year in Sochi. Earlier it was reported that Armenia refused to hold talks in Moscow on the settlement of the situation in the NKR.

"Regret was expressed for Yerevan's decision to refuse to participate in the meeting scheduled for December 23 in Moscow," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on this occasion.